Friday, November 25, 2011

Survey ignores crucial facts on abortion, says PLC

A
new survey which claims that over half of Irish GPs favour legal
abortion “fails to take account of key facts,” the Pro Life Campaign
(PLC) has said.

The survey, carried out by Dr Mark Murphy from
Sligo claims to have found that slightly more than 50% of doctors
believe a termination of pregnancy “should be available to a woman who
chooses” it. Dr Murphy wrote to 500 established GPs and 250 GPs in
training. There was a 44% response rate.

Responding to the poll,
spokesperson Dr Ruth Cullen, said that the survey “failed to take
account of key facts and distinctions”.

Dr Cullen said:
“Crucially, the survey ignores the vital ethical distinction between
necessary medical interventions in pregnancy and abortion which
intentionally ends the life of the baby.

"For this reason alone, the survey sheds no new light on the abortion debate.”

She also pointed out that Dr Murphy's survey continuously uses the expression “termination of pregnancy” throughout.

Dr
Cullen continued: “It is important to note that not all terminations
are induced abortions. Birth is a termination of pregnancy as are
necessary early deliveries where the baby may be extremely immature. But
there is a profound ethical difference between such terminations and
induced abortion, which directly targets the life of the baby.”

“As
other surveys have shown, when these clear ethical distinctions are
pointed out to respondents, it elicits a very different answer,” she
added.

Dr Cullen also took issue with the survey's finding that
four in 10 respondents believe that “a woman’s healthcare suffers
because of the requirement to travel to have a termination”.

She
remarked: “The survey asks doctors about the possible effects on women
of having to travel for abortion. However, remarkably given the most
recent evidence showing the adverse effects of abortion on women, it
fails to ask them whether they have encountered women who suffered from
undergoing abortion itself.

Robust peer reviewed research
highlighting these adverse consequences for women from abortion have
appeared in the British Journal of Psychiatry and other authoritative
publications.

Dr Cullen also suggested that there were “very
legitimate questions” that could be raised about the methodology used in
Dr Murphy's survey.

She noted: “For example, even assuming that a
correct representative sample was chosen initially, only 44pc of those
who were written to replied.

Such a sample, Dr Cullen said “could not be considered as a scientifically representative sample”.